 Mystery: March 09, 2022 Issue [#11249] |
This week: When you hate the main character Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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"Mystery spread its cloak across the sky.
We lost our way.
Shadows fell from trees.
They knew why."
~From "House of Four Doors" by the Moody Blues |
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You have probably heard that realistic characters need to have some flaws. After all, nobody is perfect, right?
That is true, but how many flaws are too many?
I recently read a published mystery story that had a well thought out plot with lots of twists and turns and a surprise ending. Sounds great, right? However, as much as I love a good plot twist and a surprise ending, I almost didn't finish the story because of the horrible character development. The main characters were so annoying that I started hoping the killer would get them!
The main characters in a mystery need to be people the readers can cheer for. They definitely don't need to be perfect, but the reader needs to like them enough to care what happens to them.
The two cops who were the main characters in the story I just finished were more focused on an immature rivalry between the two of them than they were on the case. The rivalry caused them to make unprofessional decisions that got in the way of solving the case and would have probably gotten them thrown off the force in real life. They might have been okay as side characters, but not as main protagonists.
It is also possible for a villain to have too many flaws. Just as a protagonist should not be perfect, a realistic villain should not be all bad. A villain who is too evil will stand out too much as a suspect and make the solution too easy to guess. Even if most of their good qualities turn out to be an act, they should still at least appear to have some good qualities. Even Hannibal Lecter wasn't all bad!
When developing mystery protagonists, think about your own favorite stories. Who is your favorite fictional detective? What do you like about them? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Are they somebody you would like to have in charge of the investigation if you were accused of a crime you did not commit?
Something to try: Write a mystery story with a flawed but likeable main character. |
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| Question for next time: What is your pet peeve in mystery stories? |
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